# Nail Art - For Beginners...Need Suggestions



## MissLindaJean (Sep 3, 2012)

While I like the idea of nail art and love seeing the pics and tutorials, I'm pretty lazy when it comes to actually implementing it lol. I usually end up just doing accent nails or french manis in different colored tips. I would suggest buying brushes to help with clean up or designs. I just use a regular brush set I bought from Joann's or Michael's..can't remember. You could always invest in a stamping kit, which is what I'm looking at doing.


----------



## calexxia (Sep 4, 2012)

When starting out with nail art, start off simple--get good at doing French (with a mixture of colors, it can look very nifty), then Half Moons, then maybe try some simple tape striping. Once you've gotten good at that, figure out if you are interested in 3-D or in painting designs, then work from there.

Since I have ZERO artistic skill, I don't do much nail art, but if you have a really eclectic selection, you can make some neat stuff--and then figure out if you really WANT to do nail art or if you like just choosing unique shades that do the work "for you", kinda (duochromes, shaped glitters, etc.)


----------



## divadoll (Sep 4, 2012)

French in different colours is always good and stamping is another.


----------



## Dalylah (Sep 4, 2012)

You can work with stickers or little gems and other goodies to add easy details. If you are feeling brave, get a very tiny brush to doodle on your own nails with your other colors. It's hard at first but once you relax and get used to your tools, a whole word of nail art opens up. You can also use tiny stencils or do texture manicures like the "caviar" (just google it).


----------



## leah970 (Sep 4, 2012)

Go to Ebay, you can get tons of nail stickers and stamps and such for like a buck including shipping. Dollar stores carry nail stickers too and as long as you buff your nails they will stick pretty good. Sparkle polish over regular looks nice too and changes with whatever base color you use. I love nail art and like to try all kind of things. Crackle is my current favorite. If you look around, you can buy it cheap too. Sometimes dollar stores or bargain store. Have fun


----------



## Marj B (Sep 5, 2012)

Polka dots are cute and very easy. Black dots on white polish, blue yellow pink green dots on white is really cute. Make them random or in lines vertically. Do a base coat of white and put on topcoat. When that dries,put scotch tape diagonal on your nail. Make sure the tape is pressed down good. Now polish the uncovered half of your nails with pink (bright is good!). Peel the tape off. Now put pink dots on the white and white dots on the pink. Super easy but looks really good. Then of course seal it all with a good top coat. You can use an old ink pen to make dots, a toothpick, just look around and you will find something and not have to buy dotting tools.


----------



## Marj B (Sep 5, 2012)

If you want to buy the dotting tools, get them on Ebay. It will take a while to get them, 2 weeks or so, from China but they are very inexpensive for a whole set.


----------



## evlady (Sep 6, 2012)

Bobby pins work really wells as a dotting tool for polka dots as well as more complex things like leopard prints, if you don't want to invest in dotting tools right away. I also washed an old liquid eyeliner brush &amp; use that for a nail art brush. Newspaper nails is an another really cool nail art you can do with things at home.


----------



## kayleigh83 (Sep 10, 2012)

I've been doing nail art for the past year +, more than once a week, plus I create sets I sell on Etsy, and paint nail wheels for fun. When I got started, the best way to get the ball rolling for me was imitation. I checked out TONS of nail art blogs, Tumblrs and more. And now there are more than ever, it's really flourished. Check out different blogs (just try typing nail art into a Tumblr search) and look for designs you really like that you think you could try. And check out the CutePolish channel on YouTube - she does lots of great and really simple nail art looks and you can follow along step by step and learn different techniques.

I used just toothpicks and bobby pins for quite a bit, but since I invested in a cheap set of nail art brushes and dotting tools the kinds of designs I'm able to do has really opened up. You can find them on eBay or any of the many nail art supply stores online. For brushes, a set of about 6 is good - 3 shorter ones, 3 longer striper type ones. If you wanna try out the gradient look, you'll need just your basic makeup sponges from the drugstore.

Other than that, HAVE FUN! For me, nail art is a really fulfilling creative hobby, and it's really fun and rewarding to wear your art on your hands and have complete strangers comment on them and get excited about what they see!


----------



## Marj B (Sep 10, 2012)

Last week Walgreens had Sinful nail polish for 99 cents a bottle. I got 3 bottles, one of them being NIrvana. It almost looked like chocolate brown to me. So I put on white polish, put on scotch tape to make straight lines and made half of my nails Nirvana. Now I gotta say, that looked good! But my plan was to put white dots on the brown and brown dots on the white. I did and it looked just awful on me! Those colors just don't look good in dots. I should have just left it and maybe put a couple of dots on each nail. Well, learn by experience I say.


----------

